Case Number 22792: Small Claims Court

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

Why does Santa look like creepy little Clint Howard as Balok from Star
Trek: The Original Series?

The Case

When letters to Santa from the residents of Junctionville, USA are returned
unopened, people begin to suspect something is amiss. While most citizens turn
to City Hall for answers, Father Mouse (George Gobel, Hollywood Squares)
picks up the phone and calls the North Pole. The explanation is confounding:
Someone wrote an editorial in the Junctionville claiming Santa Claus is a fraud.
And that's not the half of it. Turns out the piece was written by Father Mouse's
far-too-intelligent son Albert (Tammy Grimes). But all is not lost, as
clockmaker Joshua Trundle (Joel Grey, Cabaret) -- Father Mouse's boss and
landlord -- has a brilliant plan to turn the town's clock tower into a musical
tribute to Saint Nick, something the jolly old elf can't possible refuse. Sadly,
Albert has a hand in ruining that too. Now it's three minutes to midnight on
Christmas Eve and there's no guarantee Junctionville can be redeemed.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Warner Home Video has really
lost touch with its customer base. I'm a child of the '70s who thrilled to every
Rankin/Bass produced Christmas special, but the world does not need 'Twas the
Night Before Christmas on Blu-ray.

The creative team of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass are single-handedly
responsible to millions of Christmas memories. Their "animagic"
stop-motion holiday exploits are the stuff of legend, but they had a hand in 2D
animation as well. Frosty the Snowman is a classic. The Cricket on the
Hearth is not. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas falls somewhere in
between. The music of composer Maury Laws with lyrics by Jules Bass once again
strikes a chord -- "Christmas Chimes are Calling, "Even a Miracle
Needs a Hand" -- but it's couched in a rather uninspired tale.

Superimposing Francis P. Church's 1897 New York Sun editorial, Yes,
Virgina, There is a Santa Claus, on top of Disney's 1953 short Ben and
Me (an adaptation of author Robert Lawson's children's book) in which an
anthropomorphic mouse saves the day for a troubled human friend, writer Jerome
Coopersmith offers us little in the way of new adventure. Despite the fact that
Joel Grey is listed as the star and narrator, it's George Gobel's voice work
that carries the tale, channeling the same nervous energy that made he and Bob
Newhart comedic legends. Unfortunately, the story itself is as thin and
transparent as the paper it was undoubtedly written on.

Lampoon me all you want. I loved this special as a kid too. Fact is, it just
doesn't hold up against the pantheon of holiday television classics. Perhaps
that's why Rankin/Bass was able to churn out two specials in 1974, since the
bulk of their storytelling magic went into producing The Year Without a Santa
Claus.

Which brings up something that's always bugged me about Rankin/Bass. Their
style is consistently excellent and easily identifiable over 20 years of
creative output. So why were they never able to solidify a Rankin/Bass universe
in which all their characters exist? We know Rudolph and Frosty had adventures
together (Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July) and that Mickey Rooney
voiced Santa Claus in multiple tales, so how is that Santa himself looks
completely different in all but a few cases? In Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer (1964), he's a beady eyed little action figure. In Frosty the
Snowman (1969), he looks like everyone's favorite grandpa. In Santa Claus
is Coming to Town (1970), he goes from Glenn Campbell to elderly Asian. In
'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974) he looks like an Amish Clint
Howard, and in The Year Without a Santa Claus he's back to classic Mickey
Rooney. Maybe I'm getting crankier with age. It just irritates me.

Presented in its original 1.37:1 full frame format, there is nothing about
this image that screams Blu-ray. In fact, it's nothing more than a dump of the
previously released standard def Deluxe Edition (2010), which is also included
in this package. The colors may be brighter, but nothing has been done to clean
the dirt and damage of the source negative. And if you're looking for an audio
upgrade, forget it. This is straight up single channel Dolby Mono, with a
Spanish dub thrown in for good measure. Bonus materials consist of an
"Animated Comic Book" which is being generous. Christmas: A Global
Holiday is a nine minute short that looks to have been pulled together from
holiday clipart with a voice over narration explaining the various Christmas
customs from around the world. I don't fault the people from Pond Films who
created, I fault Warner Bros. for deciding this would be a value add for a 24
min short. Hell, they could have included Rankin/Bass' The Cricket on the
Hearth, another 2D animation effort from 1967.

Long story short, if you absolutely need 'Twas the Night Before
Christmas in your holiday video collection, the Blu-ray is selling for the
same price as the DVD, and you get the DVD copy for free. My only concern is
that purchasing it will encourage Warner Bros. to continue this unwise release
policy.